The Last Picture Show
So I spent the last couple of days at the Tribeca film festival watching a short film program and doing some miscellaneous exploring. I had lunch at a Bengal Curry place and worked up a nice, healthy schvitz while eating.
One of the best things I’ve seen is the Family Festival street fair, with live entertainment, snacks, and lots of balloons.
There was a giant chess set, face painting, multiple performing stages, and free popcorn. This thing was huge. If I was a proto-film-nerd child, I would have thought it was awesome.
This festival has to be one of the biggest events I’ve ever had the pleasure to be a part of. It was so much fun. If you ever get an opportunity to be a guest of a big film festival, I highly recommend it. I also highly recommend the TAA program – they really take care of you, and they want you to succeed and support you with everything you need to feel comfortable. They also definitely do get you in the room with people who can make things happen. It’s just all up to you once you’re there.
So I arrived in New York with a suitcase full of scripts. Now that the scripts are all given out, it’s now a suitcase packed to the gills with Final Cut Studio, books, CDs, DVDs, chocolate, Film Festival t-shirts, Rampage (Unisex?) huge-and-make-you-look-disaffected sunglasses, NYC production resource directories, buttons, miscellaneous schwag, stuffed animals, and stacks of business cards. I’m coming back with more stuff than I arrived with.
Now I’m at JFK waiting for my flight. I’ve got two hours to kill, and I don’t want to nap because I’m planning on doing that on the plane.
I read 95% of The Tipping Point on the way over, and I have nothing to read on the way back. I remember debating whether to bring my PSP, and eventually decided against it in order to reduce my weight load. I think I made a tactical error.
All I have in my bag to entertain myself is my computer (with no games on it), a container of my own business cards, and a packet of sugar-free Halls. I guess I’ll have to make like the Muppet Babies and use my imagination.
UPDATE: I put some of my TFF 2006 pictures online, so make with the clicking!
This Party Has Gotten Too Cool for Me
So an extremely fruitful four days of meetings are now over! So tired…
Okay, I wrote before about how there is free food and stuff. I tell you now, the TAA Celebration Party kicks the free food’s ass.
There was a full bar plus an additional martini-only bar. There was also a huge curvilinear banquet table consisting of oysters, shrimp, little salmon things topped with caviar, hot and cold hors d’oeuvres (Horsie Durvies), and some things I couldn’t even identify.
Then, the kicker: A Meat Bar.
This is a stand-alone counter where there are six guys cutting meat for you as you pass along. Suckling pig, beef rib, sirloin, prime rib, and two others that I can’t remember right now. I had all six, and they were excellent examples of their given variety.
If cows go to hell, this table is what it looks like.
Meanwhile, the crowd was this New York cool-film-glamour cross-section; they photographed us individually in front of a Tribeca Film Festival backdrop. I threw Westside gang signs because I that’s how I roll.
I met Alice Wu (director of Saving Face), and she is an extraordinarily cool person. I also met Georgia Lee, director of Red Doors. Also a very cool lady. In addition, Eric Byler, director of Charlotte Sometimes and the new one, Americanese. All very friendly, interesting people.
A highlight: Eric introducing me to Danny Leiner, director of Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle. I told him about how my mom called me up and said, “There’s this movie called Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle. You’ve got to see it. I’m sending you the DVD.” He laughed and said, “That’s golden.”
There were beautiful people standing on the other side of the velvet rope trying to get in. That’s when I realized that I was surrounded by beautiful people, and I was barely cool enough to deserve the Meat Bar.
“This party has gotten too cool for me,” I announced. Then I grabbed a bottled water and split.
There are still a couple days left of the actual festival, so I’m going to try to take in a couple of movies on Friday. But honestly, I’m going to miss living like this.
One additional thing I want to say here is that the participants that they selected in this years’ TAA-Connects are some of the nicest, most open and friendly people I’ve met in this business. Not only did TFI pick people with really great projects, they picked really great people. Period.
It’s such an honor to have these people as my colleagues.
United 93
So Arjay and I weren’t able to get into Love for Share so we saw United 93 instead. Clearly, not the type of movie you see for entertainment purposes, and we weren’t surprised in that respect.
The whole thing was designed to be extremely realistic; no stars, and very documentary-like — the entire thing was shot handheld. It gets really intense, and there are moments where it crosses the line a bit in terms of exploitation, although I’m pretty sure that that isn’t the intention.
The last few days have been like a single, long feat of strength. I’ve been carrying around huge loads on foot, from subway to street and back.
I packed two large, bound bricks of scripts, completely filling my rolling suitcase. A couple of days ago I finished brick number one, and yesterday I opened up brick number two. After today I should have only four copies left.
No matter where I’m going, I’m carrying something huge. Final Cut Studio, scripts to the site, my computer, etc., etc.. My right arm is now bigger than my left, much like a fiddler crab. I’m thinking about getting an anchor tattooed on it.
Attack of the Free Stuff
There’s free stuff everywhere. People are giving out free food, free drinks, free booze (which I don’t drink), free makeup (which I am not emo enough to wear so I refuse it), free CDs, free DVDs, free sunglasses, free software, free popcorn, free candy, free pets, free shoes, free bullets, free pieces of rhubarb pie.
There are lots of cool filmmaker types walking around wearing floaty spring clothing and big sunglasses. Screening venues are bustling with weird electric energy created by big expectations and dreams.
A big fim festival is pretty much heaven for a film nerd like myself. Everywhere you go are beautiful people giving away free things or smiling at you. It’s a lot like Freshman Orientation — lots of cool people meeting each other, backed up and fueled by lots of snacks and booze.
Shoot the Messenger, a British film about a black teacher who turns against black people, must not be missed. Hopefully it’ll get distribution in this country, because it really deserves to. Probably the best film I’ve seen so far here.
Meanwhile, Colour Me Kubrick was good but I felt like it was too episodic; after we’ve seen Malkovich as Alan Conway pull his con three times we get it, but this movie just keeps on showing it to us. It’s always fun to see Malkovich do anything, but I was expecting a little more from this film.
Tonight I’m seeing Love for Share. So soon I’ll see what filmmaking is like in Indonesia.
So this whole process for me has been about talking. Talking about my project, talking to other people about theirs, talking and talking and talking. Talk, throw a joke out, hit hard with more talk, talk talk talk. Here’s the script, read it for yourself. Cool, keep in touch. It’s pretty fun, very tiring. But it’s all about attitude. Attitude will determine how much fun you have, and how hard things hit.
Live from New York…
The sink in the Tribeca Grand’s mens’ room is baffling:
I’m not sure if it’s a trough to pee in or an actual sink. It’s like the pee-trough at Dodger Stadium. When you put your hands underneath the big overhang thing it pours water down like a waterfall.
It’s officially the creepiest sink I’ve ever seen.
The weather is warm for the first time this year so people are really nice. It’s really pleasant but kind of disconcerting.
They gave us Final Cut Studio. Final Cut Studio is really, really heavy. I carried it back 10 blocks to my hotel.
By the way, we saw Malkovich walking around. He was wearing a white suit with a pink tie. The Tribeca Archive film crew interviewed me on camera and I screamed, “I SAW FUCKIN’ MALKOVICH!!!”
Jeanie’s dog is awesome:
My Work in Print
Year Zero
Available from Samuel French and Amazon.com
Cowboy Versus Samurai
Available from Samuel French and Amazon.comFor a complete list of books containing my work, please click here.
